


Party

by OdeToPedrazar (MyPrivateLaughter)



Series: Five Friends and Francis [10]
Category: Nothing Much to Do
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-10
Updated: 2015-01-10
Packaged: 2018-03-07 00:24:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3153902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyPrivateLaughter/pseuds/OdeToPedrazar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Isle of Skye</i><br/>A party at Benedick's cousin's. There's death and love and reconciliation and betrayal! (Well, like three out of four)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Party

**Author's Note:**

> The song in this chapter is ['Something I Need' by OneRepublic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKCGBgOgp08) if you want to listen before/during reading!

“So how did you two meet? School?” Benedick’s cousin, Ally asked. She was in the process of making sure that everyone in the room had their glasses topped up with her homebrew, which was a considerable job as most of the young population of Skye had been invited to meet Benedick and his friends. So Ally didn’t notice the shifty look that Benedick exchanged with Beatrice at this question.

“No, um, we met through Pedro,” Beatrice said and when Ally wasn’t looking she threw Benedick a resentful glare.

Unfortunately, the dependably aggravating Uncle Len had been in contact prior to their arrival to Skye and Ally was firmly under the impression that Beatrice was Benedick’s girlfriend.

“I can’t believe little Benny is even old enough to have a girlfriend!” Ally’s partner, Craig, laughed. “Last time we saw you, you were still reading Harry Potter and watching Doctor Who!”

“That was last year!” Benedick protested.

Craig laughed at his own joke and took a deep gulp of his pint. Craig’s family owned a boat building and repairing business on the island and he and Ally had moved into a flat above the old boathouse after finishing university. Ally and Craig were both relaxed and friendly sorts around whom the whole gang had immediately felt at ease. That is, except for the awkward questions that Ally kept shooting Benedick and Beatrice’s way.

“So you’ve not broken down then yet? Even with the snow?” Craig asked.

“No,” Benedick said with a hint of pride. “Francis is very reliable.”

“Francis?”

Beatrice explained. “Francis is our hire car. So far we have spent about fifteen hours inside of him. We’ve gotten pretty close.”

Everyone laughed and Craig almost choked on his drink. Grant, the dark, tousled haired Grant, the amazing cheekbones Grant, said, “That’s cool,” to Beatrice. And Benedick glowered.

‘Grant’ was a friend of Ally’s who Benedick had taken an immediate dislike to for some pretty valid reasons. Firstly, he claimed to be a ‘photographer’ when in fact he was like twenty, so surely the term ‘photography student’ would be more accurate and less pretentious. Also, his outfit made him look as if he had just stumbled through a thrift shop backwards. It was the sort of look that was attempting to be completely casual when in reality it obviously took a lot of preparing. Again: pretentious. And finally, he kept on making Beatrice laugh. Not in a general, happy ‘everyone is laughing’ way but in small comments directed towards her, at which she would smirk as if they’d been friends for years, not like _literally_ ten minutes. She was supposed to be Benedick’s girlfriend, for god’s sake! Obviously she wasn’t _actually_ but Grant didn’t know that!

Grant was clearly a douche and Benedick had no idea why he was the only one who seemed to realise this. Or why no one else seemed to have a physical reaction whenever Beatrice laughed like that.

Benedick narrowed his eyes as Grant turned to Beatrice and asked, “Have you been to Quairing yet?”

“Where?”

“It’s a landslip,” Ally said as she came to stand with them again, putting an arm around Craig’s waist.

“A what?”

“The most stunning landscape you’ll see in this hemisphere,” Grant explained, his eyes twinkling. “I can take you up if you want. But you might get blown away, I mean, literally. It’s stormy this time of year.”

Beatrice gave a small smile. “Yes, I’d really like that, actually.”

“Bea,” Benedick interrupted, “you don’t have to agree with that suggestion, just because of the thing.”

“No, I’m not.”

Craig was grinning and asked, “What thing?” his tone insinuating something that Benedick didn’t quite understand.

“Beatrice has to agree to everything for the whole of the trip. It’s her resolution,” Benedick quickly explained.

“I wasn’t agreeing because of that. I want to go.”

Grant seemed to have ignored Benedick’s part in the conversation altogether and said to Beatrice, “Hey, I’ve got prints of some spectacular views I’ve captured up there. They’re in the car if you want to see.”

“That would be great!” Bea said and then, noticing Benedick’s scowl added, “I’ll come out to get them with you.”

Benedick stomped over to where Pedro was refilling his drink in the kitchenette.

“Are you alright, bro? Where’s Bea?” Pedro asked, noticing his friend’s dark expression.

“Gone of with _Grant_ to see some _prints_ ,” Benedick parroted. “I mean, who is that guy anyway?”

Pedro laughed. “Ok, Ally isn’t here. You can tone down the jealous boyfriend act a little. Who’s Hero talking to?”

He nodded over to where Hero was sitting in front of the log-burning stove on a partially collapsed sofa talking a girl with nutty brown skin and long dreadlocks.

The girl was called Jessie and Hero, who had been talking to her for the last two hours, was beginning to suspect that she might be a little bit in love. The conversation had begun when Jessie had offered her a drink, which Hero had declined. Jessie had politely enquired about her reasons for not drinking, which Hero had explained and with Jessie’s intrigued and encouraging response the floodgate had been opened.

Somehow Hero had found herself explaining all sorts of opinions on a multitude of things that she hadn’t even known that she had opinions on. And Jessie had been enquiring and listening and contributing such interesting and insightful comments that it hadn’t been long before Hero had developed an almost bewildered awe for the girl.

Now Jessie was in the process of telling her about an article she'd read about how your use of pronouns reveals your personality. "Like the difference between people who would say ‘it’s hot’ rather than ‘I think it’s hot’.”

“What’s the difference?” Hero asked.

“More decisive people would say ‘it’s hot’.”

Hero thought for a moment and then said, “I think I would say ‘I think it’s hot’.”

Jessie’s face cracked into a wide smile. “You definitely would. You just said ‘I think’ twice in one sentence. They said that women use ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘mine’ more because they’re often more self-attentive and aware of their, you know, internal state.”

“That’s really interesting,” Hero mused. “I suppose it’s probably true. I feel like I’m very self-aware. Ok!” she cringed. “You’ve made me to aware of my pronouns!”

"Yeah! It's really hard not to notice it now!" Jessie laughed. "Ugh, this fire is hot. I'm going to go get some fresh air. Do you want to come?"

Outside there was a metal suspended walkway that descended down the side of the boathouse. It was slightly colder than cool and Hero pulled her coat tight around her as Jessie leaned against the balustrade, out into the frosty night air.

“You seem like a very nice person,” Jessie declared, out of nowhere.

Hero couldn’t help feeling proud, although she had heard this opinion a few times before. “Thanks!”

Jessie turned around and gave her a searching look. “I hope that you’re as generous with yourself as you are with other people.”

Hero suddenly felt a little bashful, although she should be used to having bold statements being made, being Beatrice’s cousin. “What do you mean?”

“I could be completely wrong, but sometimes I feel that the kindest and most sensitive people can sometimes be the ones who worry and doubt themselves.” Jessie’s friendly, dark eyes were smiling. “I think you’re a great person and I hope that you believe that too.”

“Oh, thank you,” Hero felt unsure what to say for the first time in their conversation. “I think that I do.”

The door next to them opened and Pedro poked his head out. “Oh, hey. Just thought Balth might be out here.”

Hero shook her head. “Sorry, we haven’t seen him.”

“It’s freezing, you should come inside, Hero,” Pedro said, visibly shuddering with the cold.

“Ok, thanks, Dad!”

Pedro grinned across at her. “I’m like the father figure you never had – hang on.” He frowned at himself. “Is that offensive? Forget I said that.”

“Um, I don’t think it’s offensive,” Hero responded, thinking this over for a moment. “Maybe, I’m not sure.”

“That sounds pretty offensive,” Jessie commented.

“No, no, it’s just because I have two mums.”

But Jessie gave her a blank look. “Yeah, that’s offensive.”

Pedro grimaced and ran a hand through his hair, which could probably do with a cut. “Sorry, Hero. You want me to get your scarf?”

“No, thank you. I’ll come in now. I guess I don’t want to catch a cold.”

“Yeah, I won’t be sitting next to you if you’re going to be sneezing all over me,” Pedro said before going back inside to locate Balthazar.

Balthazar was to be found in the spare room, sitting on the bed with a guitar in hand. The room was gloomy except for the warm light from a bedside lamp and Balthazar looked startled when Pedro pushed open the door.

“Here you are!” Pedro grinned. “Why are you hiding out on your own?”

Balthazar smiled and then, when he realised Pedro actually wanted a response, said, “Oh, um, well, I never realised how much I need time alone until I haven’t had any time alone for like ten days.”

Pedro laughed good-naturedly and tried very hard not to be offended. “Fair enough. I’ll let you recharge your batteries.” He turned to go back out of the door but Balthazar called for him to wait.

“I didn’t mean you,” Balthazar said, and then coloured slightly and stared down at his guitar.

But Pedro had a warm feeling spreading within his chest. “You mean, I don’t count?” he joked. “You might as well be alone when I’m here.”

Balthazar smirked up at his friend. “Yeah, exactly.”

They considered each other for a moment. Then Pedro commented, “So you found a guitar?”

“Yeah, yeah. It was pretty out of tune but…”

“You going to play me something?” Pedro came into the room and planted himself down squarely into the armchair opposite Balthazar – the implication being that he wasn’t going anywhere.

“Um, sure. Any particular request?” Balthazar allowed his fingers to pick at the guitar randomly, his left hand running up and down the frets.

“I don’t know. What have you learnt recently?”

“OneRepublic?”

“Yeah, sounds good.” Pedro rooted in his pocket and pulled out his phone. “Let me film you.”

Balthazar grimaced. “Really? Why?”

“I don’t know. It’s a memory from our trip.”

Balthazar gave a small shrug and said, “Alright, but could you not put it online?”

“Of course not! The lighting is awful in here. Ursula would not be impressed.”

Balthazar grinned and shook his head. “I love how you’re a bit scared of Ursula.”

“Yeah! She’s scary when it comes to ensuring that you’re well lit and mic-ed up!”

Balthazar chuckled to himself and began to strum gently. Then his mellow, roughhewn voice joined in the with the familiar lyrics:

 _“I had a dream the other night, about how we only get one life…_ ”

When Pedro watched back the video later, when everyone else was asleep, he realised why he needed Ursula’s help with that sort of thing. Not that he didn’t love the video, of course. (Pedro may or may not have watched it a good three times with his headphones in... alright, at least five.) He especially liked the line ‘ _I stayed awake and stared at you’_ because Balthazar looks up at that point, beyond the camera, to where Pedro had been sitting and then blushes and looks away. The only problem is that the cameraman seemed to have become distracted at this point and half of Balthazar’s head is sort of missing for the rest of the video.

Still. It was a good video. Pedro pressed the progress bar at 0:21 and watched one last time. Everyone else was stretched out around him, sleeping on various sofas, mattresses and pillows. Just one last time before sleep, Pedro promised himself.

_“Woke me up right after two – I stayed awake and stared at you, so I wouldn’t lose my mind.”_

Pedro looked away from the hypnotising video to where Balthazar was next to him, dead to the world, cocooned in a sleeping bag. His head was turned away.

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, so, the story with this ridiculously long chapter is that I had this 'amazing' idea when I started planning this fic that the Party chapter would be like this epic chapter that contains ALL OF THE SHIPS. But then when it actually came to writing it... Yeah. This was a bit rushed. But I hope you enjoyed it anyway!!  
> And I was quickly trying to think of a Pedrazar appropriate song and so just went with the song from [that fan video I made ages ago](http://odetopedrazar.tumblr.com/post/103299233470/warning-contains-flashing-lights-and-excessive)!! Sorry if it's a bit obscure (??) Just could imagine Balthy singing this thinking it wasn't too sappy and obvious but then in reality, super obvious. ;) ;)  
> (I may read back through this chapter in the future to edit it as it was very much a rush job!)


End file.
